


Your Turn

by janetcarter



Series: The Greatest Adventure [10]
Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Blood, F/M, Gen, Kid Fic, Post-Canon, injured child, minor injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25437199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/pseuds/janetcarter
Summary: G'Kar takes Lyta and their daughter to a playground to help them bond after Lyta's time away.
Relationships: Lyta Alexander/G'Kar
Series: The Greatest Adventure [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740013
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6
Collections: Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 11





	Your Turn

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't been able to take my little siblings to a park in months so I'm living vicariously through fic. 
> 
> For the Hurt/Comfort Bingo prompt "Minor Illness/Injury."

G'Kar had found this place a year ago, he told her. A playground on an abandoned colony world with no prying eyes to bother their daughter as she tried to have fun, tried to be normal. After all, Human-Narn hybrids weren't exactly common.

Drawing such attention now wasn't as dangerous with the Corps gone and Lyta back home. But he still recommended revisiting the place as a family, without the distractions of screaming children or gawking stares, to give Lyta a chance to make up for lost time. 

He stayed out of their way, writing at a picnic table nearby, close enough to give Ro the comfort of familiarity if she needed it. But according to him, despite her initial hesitance to leave his side, she was warming up to Lyta just fine. 

Lyta herself had trouble seeing it. Her last firm memories of Ro were as a baby. A baby who wasn't as close to her as to her father, by Lyta's own doing of course, but a baby who snuggled against her when tired and gripped her fingers tight. Now, at just shy of three earth years old, it wasn't like Ro could remember those days.

To her, Lyta was practically a stranger; a stranger who was pushing her on a swing, feeling a twinge of guilt at every shriek of laughter because it just reminded her of how many she'd missed. 

She'd wanted to use her telekinesis and show off, give Ro a reason to think her mommy was cool because she didn't have much else going for her. But she couldn't resist taking an excuse for contact, no matter how abrupt it was with each shove. 

Ro started wriggling around, making the chains slant. 

"You okay?" Lyta asked, steadying the swing. 

"I want slide!" Ro shouted, pointing to a tall red one. 

It was still so weird she knew so many words. It was weird she knew words at all, really. Granted, her pronunciation made it feel like a different language sometimes (and who's to say it wasn't? Lyta hardly knew enough Narn to tell), but at least this sentence had been more simple. 

"Alright," Lyta agreed. She picked her up from the bucket swing, a bit awkwardly since Ro didn't get her legs out right the first time. She wanted to walk her over to the slide herself, take a longer moment of contact, feel needed, but Ro pushed off her like a cat and ran off. 

It was hard not to feel offended even though she should know better. She glanced over to G'Kar, who looked like he was minding his own business, but he probably saw the whole thing in his peripheral vision. The damn prosthetic eye of his…

When she looked back, she realized Ro hadn't made it to the slide. No, she was on the ground, eyes wide, lips quivering. 

She burst into tears. 

"Ro!" Lyta bolted over, throwing herself onto the ground beside her. She took a deep breath, trying not to show her own panic as she hesitantly stroked Ro's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. Can I see?" 

Her little pink face contorted as she cradled her knee, but after a sniffle, she nodded. Lyta moved the fabric of her dress to reveal a scrape. If it weren't so dark, it might've passed as one of her spots. That, and the blood budding at the surface gave it away.

"Paka!" Ro wailed at the sight. 

_Yes, get your father over her, please_ , Lyta thought.

"Paka's getting a bandage!" he yelled as he ran up the ship ramp.

_Bastard._

"Oh, that's not so bad," Lyta told her, even though she kept glancing back to see where G'Kar was. He should've let her get the bandage. That was something she could do. Consoling her own daughter? Might as well be asking her to fly a ship through a field of asteroids. 

Lyta bit her lip. "Do you still wanna go on the slide?" 

Ro was too busy bawling to respond. 

What Lyta wanted to do more than anything was throw her arms around her. And without a bandage on hand, or a fun solution to distract, that seemed like her best chance at calming her down. "Can I… Can I hug you?" 

Ro nodded, breaths like hiccups, and crawled into Lyta's lap. For what felt like the first time since she was only a few months old, Lyta held her daughter close. 

It definitely could've been under better circumstances, but… Lyta took what she could get. It just would've been nice if she didn't feel so guilty about how comforting it felt to her when Ro was the one who needed it. Gently rocking back and forth, she repeated, "It's okay." 

Eventually, when Ro's cries had quieted, G'Kar made his way over. "Ro, what happened?" 

"I got a boo-boo," she sniffled as he knelt beside her and Lyta. 

"I noticed!" he said, bringing the bandage and ointment into view. "Well, it is a good thing Mommy was here to take care of you. She did very good, didn't she?"

Ro nodded against Lyta's chest. 

"What do you say we take care of your boo-boo," he started, "And then you two can continue playing?" 

Ro nodded again after a sniffle, rubbing her eyes.

"Lyta," he said, handing the supplies over to her. 

"Me? I--I mean, is that okay with you, Ro?" 

Again, she nodded. G'Kar took her into his own lap in a move that left Lyta feeling empty. 

No matter how careful she was with the ointment, Ro still fidgeted and squirmed. "Sh--I mean, sorry," Lyta corrected several different times. She felt like she'd performed intricate surgery by the time she gently laid the bandage across. 

"There, see?" G'Kar looked down to Ro, whose calm face rested against his chest. Lyta wished Ro was back on her lap instead. "All better. Now, what do we say?"

"Tank you, Mommy." 

Lyta cleared her throat to cover a small gasp. "Okay, um… still wanna go down the slide?" 

"Slide!" She shot up off of G'Kar like she already forgot the trauma she'd just gone through. 

Lyta herself wouldn't be forgetting for a while, but at least it worked. "I'll take that as a yes."

This time, instead of running ahead, Ro's small hand squeezed Lyta's fingers. She helped her daughter up the playground stairs and kept a watchful eye, ready to use her powers if needed. The kid had been through enough for one day. 

With a light push from Lyta's hand, Ro sped down the slide. Thankfully, her feet hit the ground first.

She jumped up and looked back, beaming. "Mommy's turn!" 

"My turn?" Lyta asked, pointing to herself. Ro didn't seem to get why it was such a weird thing to say, and instead nodded with a smile. _Of course_ G'Kar was watching now, but who was she to deny the wishes of an injured kid? An injured kid who just called her "Mommy" and actually wanted her around? "Okay, move out of the way." 

The slide was a touch small for her, but she still went fast enough to warrant an accidental shriek. Once she was on the ground, Ro scrambled back up to the top. 

"Having fun?" G'Kar asked as Lyta dusted herself off. 

"Now that she isn't crying, yeah," she said. Both of them stood there watching, especially since Ro was so adamant that they paid attention to every little move. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Did what? Retrieve a bandage for our injured daughter?" he asked innocently.

"You know what I mean." 

"You handled it perfectly," he said as Ro hit the ground safely. "I'm very proud." 

Ro tugged on Lyta's hand, looking up at her with those bright red eyes. "Your turn!" 

Lyta smiled as an unfamiliar warmth spread through her. In all honesty, she thought she might cry if she weren't careful. 

"My turn," she echoed.

She took Ro's tiny hand into her own, and they went up the stairs again.

  
  



End file.
